Tony, it wasn't the Pg site, it was the
www.pgdp.net
site. Again, I just scrolled down the site till Ifound the latest titles.
At the end of the list of ten or so there is a link that says "see more." I
enter upon that link and everything shuts down. That is all I know.
I do have the site saved to my favorites and have noticed that when I go in
newer books are added one or two at a time. But that "see more" link
doesn't work.
Patti
Me and my guide dog;
He does a good job,
He keeps me safe
So life is just great
For me and my guide dog.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tony Baechler" <tony@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, March 15, 2005 9:30 PM
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Public domain
Hi. I won't get into an ethical argument here because that is a matter of personal opinion. However, ethics do not apply to public domain works. That's why they belong to the public. In this specific case, PG is giving them away to anyone. That includes bookshare or tons of other sites. Look at gutenberg.com. That is a pay site selling PG books for I think $1 each but I haven't looked. To me, that isn't ethical at all, but it is totally legal. Yes, I agree with you that if someone can use bookshare, they can just as easily use PG. I also agree that PG should be given credit as the source. However, the fact of the matter is that very few people know about PG. Proportionally the blind population knows about PG more than the public, but that's because they are making books available completely free in an accessible form. I bet that even among the blind not many use PG regularly or know much about them. I'm glad to see K1000 and Open Book including PG search tools. I have addressed this several times lately, but will do so again since you seem to have misunderstood. The PG site and structure are now such that no staff would have to do anything. The new books could be added in a totally automated manner. I totally agree with you 100% that bookshare staff shouldn't take time away from scanned books to add public domain ones. Except for a very little amount of work from the engineers, nothing else would have to be done. It is incredibly simple to set this up. Take a look at the below site for an example of what I mean. The new postings are added automatically as they are posted. You can register if you want, it's free, but you don't have to. My point is that all they would need to do at bookshare is set up a public domain category, maybe a separate public domain page, and that's it. Each book would get its own ID in the bookshare system of course, but they already do the Braille translation and DAISY conversion on the fly with automated software. I'm really not asking for as much as it seems. It's already in an automated format, perfect for adding to library catalogs. In fact there is a project to donate books to libraries and help add PG books to those same electronic catalogs. Here's the site:
http://pgdp.net/
If anyone has questions or anything related to PG or public domain, feel free to ask me on or off list. I am on a volunteer list for PG so I can pass your suggestions on to the webmaster or chief cataloger.
At 10:30 AM 3/15/2005 -0600, you wrote:I do know what public domain books are. To me there is a difference between
unethical and illegal and yet another difference in what page wants done
with the books they have done and what I think should be done with them. My
point was only to acknowledge the source of the books just as we are
acknowledged as submitters of what we scan. Book share staff working on
adding those books would still take time away from the more important work
of adding books that can not be obtained from any other source, and as I'm
sure you know, it is unacceptable for bookshare members to submit those
books as if they were their own. Anyone capable of using the bookshare site
should be capable of finding and obtaining the public domain books they want
from the existing online collections.
